Day by Day
by TmoVie
Summary: Rose and Dimitri's life together continued after Last Sacrifice
1. Chapter 1

As I woke up, I stretched my arms above my head and grimaced as I felt my muscles tighten. I heard a groan and turned over, cracking my eyes open. I smiled as I met the dark brown eyes of the man lying underneath me. He stared back, one of his eyebrows tilted upwards and a lazy smile on his face. Even after waking up next to him like this for a week I still automatically smiled when I saw him. There was just something about his smile after he'd just woken up, with sleep still clinging to him that made my heart expand.

"Good morning, Roza. Ready for your big day?" He mumbled and I was reminded of yet another reason I love waking up next to him, in the mornings his accent always sounds thicker.

I frowned at his question and rested my chin on his chest. "I would be more excited if I was actually going to be doing something."

He chuckled and began running his hand up and down my arm then down my back. "You're still healing."

"Oh, please. I'm completely ready for action. Instead I'm just going to be a certified statue for the next two weeks."

Dimitri answered with a look that practically screamed he was about to make some insightful comment so I broke out my best pout, the pout that could get me out of almost anything. I could tell he was torn, very torn, considering his eyes had now fastened themselves to my lips and his hand had paused in its exploration of my back. I slowly leaned forward and brought our lips together. When he immediately responded I felt a small bit of pride, because for someone who acted as tough as Dimitri it was _very_ easy for me to distract him.

I got so lost in the feeling of his hair wrapped around my fingers and running my hand over his chest that I barely even noticed him pushing me back onto the bed and nudging my legs apart. When I felt his fingers slowly moving toward the waistband of my underwear I couldn't contain my laugh.

He moved back only barely, hovering over me with an adorably confused expression on his face that was made even cuter by his heavy breathing. Although I'm sure he would be slightly offended by me calling him "cute" and "adorable" I just couldn't help how happy his attention made me. He was normally gone for most of the day, as he had been placed back on duty as one of Christian's guardians immediately, but as soon as he had a break he would come back to see me and, judging by how much time we had spent in this bed, he missed me a lot during the day too.

I held back my laughter and instead tried to give him a sexy expression. "Someone doesn't seem to think I'm still healing."

Dimitri responded by rolling his eyes and proceeding to shut me up by turning his attention to my collarbone. More precisely the place on my collarbone he discovered a few days ago makes me melt.

"This is not fair," I tried to sound offended, but he ran his tongue over the spot in question right as I said it and it came out as a moan. "I want to actually be able to walk properly on my first day." This also came out a little less threatening than I intended considering I was practically digging my nails into his back at this point.

He froze and for a whole minute the only sound in the room was my heavy breathing. He then proceeded to move slowly up my body until we were face to face. "You make a good point," he said huskily before leaning down to capture my mouth in a very distracting kiss. He pulled back as soon as my hands traveled back into his hair and rolled completely off of me. "I don't want to distract you on your first day and you already don't have much time left to get ready."

I swear it took ten minutes for those words to really sink in as I lay there staring at the ceiling, completely shocked at the abrupt lack of his body heat. Eventually I turned to look at him, my mouth open in disbelief. My shocked expression turned into a glare as I saw him staring calmly at me with a smile that glowed with pride. Then he turned and gestured towards the shower. I started grumbling under my breath as I glanced toward the clock and realized he was right, I'd be late if I didn't get ready now. I stood up and stomped around the bed, locking myself in the bathroom without looking at him once.

As I finished in the shower and moved out towards my closet I continued ignoring him, despite the fact that the time in the shower had calmed my very frustrated nerves. I heard him enter the bathroom after me as I stepped into my closet. I saw the official guardian outfit hanging exactly where I had placed it when it had arrived a few days ago. I pulled it out and was surprised to see a little piece of paper clipped to it that hadn't been there the day before.

_Good luck on your first official day, Guardian Hathaway. And don't forget, wear your hair up. I love you._

I smiled brightly at the note and pulled on the outfit quickly. I was just pulling my hair up when the door to the bathroom opened and he exited with his towel wrapped around his waist. I stood by the door to the closet and gave him an amazingly cheesy smile as he walked past me. I knew the minute he realized I had seen his letter by the way his head dropped and an embarrassed expression lined his face.

He walked over to his side of the closet and a warm feeling spread through me. We had both received our own rooms in one of the many residential buildings at court, but I don't think Dimitri spent more than one day there. Instead most of his clothes were neatly hanging in the closet, his duster was on the hook by the door and there was a pile of some of his beat up old westerns on one of the tables by the couch.

I stood in the doorway watching him and when he turned around he looked so embarrassed that I just had to walk over, wrap my arms around his neck, and pull him down for a kiss. He responded gently and when we broke apart I held my hand out, "Walk with me?"

He smiled and took my hand, walking with me out into the hallway and towards one of the most important moments of my life. Even if I was just going to be a statue standing in the back of the room watching Lissa sit and talk to people for hours, I was going to be doing that as an official guardian. This was real. I was just started to get nervous when Dimitri leaned down and whispered in my ear, "You're going to be great." I squeezed his hand in thanks, feeling especially grateful to have him here with me.


	2. Chapter 2

I stood as still as a statue, or tried to at least, because I still had no idea what to do with my hands and I had the constant urge to look at my fellow guardian every five seconds. She was a very short, brusque woman and from the five words she said to me it sounded like she didn't speak much English. She'd handed me an earpiece and a stake then told me to stand in the corner. It seemed like the start to a beautiful friendship if you asked me.

"Five minutes," my earpiece squawked. I flinched because the volume on this thing was way too loud and there is no way I was going to ask this woman how to turn it down because she'd probably just yell at me for not staying in my corner. I felt the tiniest bit of jealousy that I now had to rely on other people telling my through a tiny earpiece where my best friend was, but I quickly stopped that train of thought. Lissa had been over to see me plenty of times since I first woke up and we'd talked for hours about how different everything is going to be now and I was slowly getting used to the idea of having to guess my best friend's every thought.

When the door opened and Lissa walked in, flanked by two ridiculously scary looking guardians, I couldn't stop my heart from speeding up and from standing up a little taller in my boots. I stared straight ahead, but I still caught Lissa's eye as she walked past and gave me a fake glare. Instead of sticking my tongue out at her, like I really wanted to, I sent her a wink and a smirk then went back to looking straight ahead. Lissa sat down in what I assume is the actual throne, and silence filled the room. I tried not to break my stance, but I did start to wonder why we were all there when the front door finally opened and a man entered.

He walked agonizingly slowly across the hall. I almost felt bad for the guy as all eyes were locked on him and it looked like his knees were about to give out if Lissa stared at him any longer. He finally reached the acceptable distance and bowed before her. As he stood up, straightened his jacket, and cleared his throat I prepared myself for what had to be some very cool and important Moroi meeting. Maybe this job would have some perks after all.

Instead I was forced to listen to two hours of talk about financial worries amongst Moroi shop owners. I was surprised that I didn't fall asleep because this guy had the most monotone voice I'd ever heard. I gained a whole new respect for Lissa as she rose up, thanked him for coming, and promised that she'd put together a group of people to help with this concern. If she had really paid attention through that entire thing she was a saint. Now I understand why my fellow guardian was so brusque, she must have sat through tons of meetings like this and oh god, if the rest of my week is going to be like this I don't know how I'm going to survive.

As Lissa walked out of the room this time I caught her eye and sent her a big smile and a very discreet thumbs up. She responded with her own and even though we didn't have the bond anymore I could practically hear her sending me a quick "goodbye" as she was whisked away for more queenly business.

I stood there for another minute before I was practically assaulted by my partner telling me I had a three-hour lunch break before I had to be back in this room for another meeting. Hopefully this time it would be a little more interesting, because if this is what I had spent my entire life training for I was going to be sorely disappointed. I headed towards where I knew a lot of guardians went for their breaks and an idea came to mind when I saw Dimitri sitting at one of the tables.

As always he was sitting alone, all of the other guardians were sitting about two tables to the side, his drink was on the table in front of him and he had a book in his lap. I practically skipped across the distance and planted myself in a seat right across from him. "So, Comrade, how much time do you have off?"

He didn't even look up from his book as he answered, "Four hours. It's a pretty slow day today."

I tried to keep my face straight as I said slowly, "Good, because I have an idea."

At this he finally looked up from his book and I was glad to see that, despite the questioning tilt of his eyebrows, there was an interested gleam in his eye. "Oh yeah, and what is that?" He closed his book and leaned forward in his chair.

"It's a surprise. Come with me," I teased as I stood up, walked a few feet away, then looked back and stared expectantly at him. I didn't miss the looks the guardians at the other table started sending each other. There was something about their expressions when they saw us that irked me and I felt the urge to go over and ask what that was about until I was distracted by Dimitri, who had cleaned up his table surprisingly quickly and was walking over to me.

"Alright, where are we going?" He said in a voice that he tried to make sound exasperated, but in reality it came out sounding quite the opposite.

"Shh. No questions," I said forcefully as I pulled on his coat sleeve to make sure he was following me. I kept my face as blank as it could possibly be so that he wouldn't get any hints. I finally stopped in front of the gym located within the confines of the court. I had checked the facility out earlier in the week, when no one was sent to watch me heal, and despite its small size, I guess the Moiri that live here aren't that concerned with lifting weights, it was decked out in all sorts of state of the art equipment. I turned around and flung out my arms, "Tada! We have reached our destination!"

Even with my little show of excitement, Dimitri's face didn't move at all from a slightly frustrated expression. He had a very tough look in his eyes as he stared at me, "You shouldn't be over exerting yourself."

"Oh come on!" I tried not to make this come out as a whine, but I didn't really succeed. "I'm completely healed and I am going to prove it to you."

We faced off against each other for another minute, each trying not to cave. Eventually, I tilted my head in a questioning expression. He closed his eyes for a quick second before sighing and mumbling something in Russian very quickly under his breath. Then he walked past me into the gym before calling back, "If you believe you are all healed then I'm not going to go easy on you."

I cheered as I ran after him and twenty minutes later the two of us were in sweats, stretching by the track. Right before we started to run Dimitri turned to me, "Are you sure you're ready?"

I glared at him before turning my head to look down the track, "I have never been better." Without waiting to see his reaction I took off, enjoying my few seconds of speed before he caught up with me. I guess he wasn't lying when he said he wasn't going to go easy on me because he past me easily within five minutes. I tried to catch up to him but eventually I couldn't ignore the giant stitch in my side and I pulled over to the side of the track. Standing on the side of the track clutching my aching side and waiting for Dimitri to finish his lap was humiliating. He eventually stopped next to me with a cocky smirk on his face that normally I would enjoy because oh lord did it look good on his lips. But no, now I was a little too annoyed by the fact that I looked like I was about to collapse while he looked like he barely even broke a sweat.

"Don't say a word," I bit out.

"You sure you don't want to do some sparring next?" Dimitri said, openly laughing now.

I stood up and squared my shoulders before hitting him in the stomach and walking away. I purposefully didn't hit him hard, but even then instead of getting back at him my attempt just made him laugh more. I tried to retain my dignity as I walked away, but I was so surprised when he came up behind me and picked me up that I made a very high pitched noise before cracking up and trying to get him off me.

We spent the next ten minutes practically rolling around on the floor before we both seemed to realize at the exact same time how close we'd become through our struggles and we turned to more pleasurable activities as I captured his mouth in a kiss that got deeper and deeper the longer we stood there. Maybe if I was in my right mind I would have realized that we were putting on quite the display of PDA, but to be perfectly honest I didn't give a damn because Dimitri's tongue was locked with mine and his hands were very pleasurably sliding down my back and really I wanted to stay there with him all day. Sadly, we were interrupted by the very condescending sniff of an older dhampir woman who had entered the gym a little after us and was passing by where we were standing by the track.

"What was that about?" I said, getting heated because she really didn't need to sound so high and mighty. I was considering going after her when Dimitri wrapped his arm around my hip and started steering me towards the locker room.

"It's nothing," he murmured.

"It is not nothing. What gives her the right to judge us? Plus I saw people looking at us earlier too. What is going on?" I continued, on a warpath as I started to remember other looks that were thrown our way earlier in the day.

"It is nothing to worry about and more importantly you only have half an hour before you have to be back on duty so go change and I'll see you later." He was obviously trying to be soothing, but he had to know that I wasn't going to let this go.

I stared up at him for a moment, studying his eyes. They were practically screaming at me to forget about this but I couldn't. There was something else buried there that I couldn't figure out. What did he know that I didn't? Had something happened to him? I stared a little harder before realizing that I had actually worked up quite a sweat and this wasn't like being late to class, which I wouldn't have cared less about, this was my job now. "I am not going to forget about this," I warned him, which earned me a 'do you really think I'd believe otherwise' look and I immediately started to walk away. Eventually I realized my mistake and I turned around and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "I love you," I whispered before racing back to the locker room to continue my exciting first day.


End file.
